007: WELCOME TO THE COTTAGE
By now, you’ve seen plenty of bits and pieces of The Cottage throughout the previous blog posts, including 006: Ready to Launch, 003: Building the Brand, Part I, and 001: Introductions.
However, this is our unofficial (occasionally updated) digital archive of The Cottage. The place that housed so many memories for so many of us over the past 50+ years.
LET OUR TOUR BEGIN
To this day, The Cottage experience begins when you pull into the narrow, single-lane gravel street tucked away in a barely noticeable enclave within what appears to be a wetland forest.
As you round the woodland corner, the marsh on the right is the first memory I transport back to whenever I see a cattail anywhere else in the world.
The Cottage is the first driveway on the left that welcomes you down with a parade of birdhouses and seagull statues older than I am.
Upon pulling in, it was a common sight to see Grandma and Grandpa’s bikes leaning against their iconic flagstone foundation and chocolate-brown wood siding. The first time my wife (Kendra) met my grandparents in 2014, they had just gotten back from a 36-mile bike ride to and from Petoskey.
Finding a parking spot is always strategic based on who you think will have to leave to run an errand or go downtown first. Back in the olden days, it was “Park at Your Own Risk” because you could bet there’d be games of “21” or “Lightning,” and a basketball (or a flying kid) on your hood was almost a guarantee.
From what I’ve always remembered, they had a hand-painted sign near the front door reading, “The Deano’s,” which I never quite understood since that was Grandpa’s first name, not their wedded last name.
It may have been because there were other relatives in the area, so it marked theirs as The Deano’s to avoid confusion. It may also have been a “head of the household” cultural norm back then? Either way, it’s no longer hanging up, but I did find it recently in the old shed.
You’re first introduced to red geraniums embedded within the front door’s stained glass window. Then, whether it’s within your first steps in the door or on your last steps out, you’re invited to commemorate your first visit to The Cottage on (one of) the Signature Boards.
This rite of passage has been a trademark feature that everyone enjoys searching, whether for their own name marked years prior or other names they know or might recognize.
As you make your way inside, you look directly outward to the East over Lake Charlevoix, arguably the best, most beautiful freshwater lake in the world.
To your right, you’ll enter the heart of The Cottage: the kitchen, with its original log table, where countless meals, game nights, life lessons, early-morning and late-night chats, and many more memories have taken place. Most famously among them: MAFFLES. But, we’ll save those for later.
Nowadays, you’ll likely see a tin of Cottage Coffee waiting for you to brew, hopefully with a Johan’s Bakery doughnut or two ;)
Unless it’s a stormy day, the majority of time spent at The Cottage has always been outside. In the yard, there would always be games of croquet, any form of a ball, birdie, or frisbee sport, duck feedings (now we know NOT to give them bread), corn shucking, mid-day snacks, meals, building campfires, roasting s’mores, watching fireworks, and so much more.
If we weren’t in the yard, we’d be building sand castles with extensive moats or prepping for the next voyage. That is, if we weren’t already in the water, chucking balls at each other, floating on whatever the toy is of the era, or even “showering” before dinner (with what nowadays should be environmentally safe soap and shampoo).
If you stopped by The Cottage and we weren’t outside doing any of those things, we were probably already out on the boat on an adventure downtown, to swim off the boat, to yell while going under The Bridge, or eating at The Landing, or fish & chips take-out in the Round Lake.
Before there were cell phones, the only way to signal the boat from land was to throw a beach towel up on the roof to act as a cottage signal flag.
By the end of a long summer day, all of the above activities usually wore us out, so we’d be taking in the sunset glow over Lake Charlevoix from the patio. Which, as we’ve gotten older, is where you’ll find us morning, noon, and night more often than not nowadays.
As you head inside, you’ll notice a ladybug on the screen. That was Grandma’s solution to preventing kids of all ages not to walk or run through the screen while in a hurry to go outside or come back in. It has since become one of the many trademark items around The Cottage, including an Oreo jar from which I continue to sneak cookies every time I’m here.
While the couches and carpets might have been updated over the years, the majority of The Cottage has remained the same, especially the red-and-white gingham details, the logwood furniture, and the stone fireplace with its driftwood displays and candles that have never been lit.
The bedrooms have just as much character as the rest of The Cottage, with bunk beds covered in gingham and the original knotty pine paneling surrounding you like a cozy little den.
There’s no modern sleep machine or app that can recreate the experience of sleeping with the windows open on a cool summer night, drifting off to sleep to the gentle waves breaking on the sandy beach.
Even the bathroom has stories embedded in it, including a toilet seat cover that has transcended its original use to become the featured work of art it is today, courtesy of my Great-Grandma Norma as a special gift for her son-in-law, Grandpa Deano, many moons ago.
As literal proof that modern updates are indeed needed to keep cottages safe and functional (without losing their charm or character), the story of the bathroom beads thankfully comes from before my time.
Apparently, the original septic system was so small or old, or both, that there used to be a foolproof system in place to determine when you could flush. As legend goes, unless it was a “brown,” any “yellows” were only flushed every four deposits.
Which, in a summer-long household of two adults and three growing kids, I prefer not to imagine what the bathroom experience was back then compared to what it is now. We can all be thankful for that septic upgrade while we admire the beads next to the throne they’ve so courageously guarded.
Of course, all of these tangible items, relics of the past, and stories to be told are best enjoyed in person, so we hope to welcome you to The Cottage soon. We’ll have a Sharpie ready for you to sign the board and a cup of Cottage Coffee (hot or iced) waiting to be enjoyed.
